Carotenoids and tocotrienols found in oils of plant origin have many applications.
Carotenoids are typically used for pigmentation of foods and medicine. They have also been found to inhibit light-initiated flavor deterioration of soybean oil without affecting color quality. Warner et al., J. Am. Oil Chem. Soc., 64:213 (1987). .beta.-carotene is a precursor to vitamin A and, in addition to being a dietary vitamin supplement, has been associated with prevention of epithelial and endothelial cell cancer. Nutrition Policy Board, Summary and Recommendation of the Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health, U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, publication 88-50211 (1988); Menkes et al., New Eng J. Med., 20: 1250 (1986).
Tocotrienols have been implicated in suppression of cholesterolgenesis and of arterial thrombosis by inhibition of platelet thromboxane formation. Qureshi et al., Amer. Chem. Soc. Nat'l. Mtg. (April, 1990); Rand et al., Lipids, 23:1019 (1988). Tocotrienols have also been investigated as possible anticarcinogenic agents. Komiyama et al., Int'l. Palm Oil Dev. Conf., PORIM Press, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (1988); Ngah et al., Int'l. Palm Oil Dev. Conf., PORIM Press, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (1988).
Historically, separation of carotenoids and tocotrienols has been incomplete. For example, carotenoids have been extracted from crude palm oil but tocotrienols typically are lost during the extraction process. Likewise, carotenoids are generally lost during extraction of tocotrienols from oils. Also, know methods for recovering carotenoids and tocotrienols typically do not provide for individual separation of classes of carotenoids and tocotrienols.
Therefore, a need exists for a new method and apparatus for extracting carotenoids and tocotrienols from oil which overcome or minimize the above-listed problems.